According to Michael Mann, Vincent is one that is able to get in and out of anywhere without anyone recognizing him or remembering him. To prepare for the movie, Tom Cruise had to make FedEx deliveries in a crowded LA market without anyone recognizing him as Tom Cruise.

Jason Statham's cameo is often regarded as a nod to his character Frank Martin from _The Transporter (2002)_ series. He delivers a bag to Vincent at the airport and then disappears, no questions asked.

To help Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx best to capture the spirit of their characters, Michael Mann wrote documents containing the background of Vincent and Max. Cruise said that the document of Vincent had information on how he began to like jazz, for instance.

The seating of the two leads was crucial to certain scenes. For their more intimate exchanges, Cruise would sit directly behind Foxx, out of his peripheral vision and therefore making him more vulnerable and uncertain of his opponent.

Australian Stuart Beattie was only 17 when he took a cab home from Sydney airport. It was on that cab ride that he had the idea of a homicidal maniac sitting in the back of a cab with the driver nonchalantly entering into conversation with him, trusting his passenger implicitly. Beattie drafted his idea into a two-page treatment. Later, when he was enrolled at Oregon State University, he fleshed it out into his first screenplay. Entitled "The Last Domino", he put the script away, taking it out occasionally for revisions and rewrites over the following years.

Mick Gould was hired to train Tom Cruise for the action sequences - including showing him how to fire live rounds. Michael Mann himself trained with various weapons so he knew how to direct the action sequences to full effect.

"Collateral" sat on DreamWorks development books for three years. Mimi Leder was initially attached to direct, it then passed on to Janusz Kaminski. It wasn't until Russell Crowe became interested in playing Vincent, the hitman, that the project started generating any heat. Crowe brought Michael Mann on board, but the constant delays meant that Crowe left the project. Mann immediately went to Tom Cruise with the idea of him playing the hitman and Adam Sandler as the cabbie.

In an interview in American Cinematographer, Michael Mann said that as far as he was aware, this was one of the first movies to attempt to make a "look" out of digital video rather than trying to make DV look like film. This approach meant the movie could be shot in the low-light scenes of urban desolation Mann wanted - because Digital reacts much better to low light than film. The approximately 20% of the picture that was shot on film was mostly, according to Mann, the portion set in the "Fever" nightclub - because this is the scene with the brightest lighting states, a condition in which DV does not perform as well.

Jada Pinkett Smith spent an entire day with a couple that Michael Mann felt were quite similar to her character. She also spent a day shadowing a female prosecuting attorney, giving her ideas on how to dress and carry herself.

Vincent's primary weapon of choice in the movie is a Heckler and Koch USP45, as stated by Mann in the commentary. He also uses a Ruger MKII .22LR handgun with integral sound suppressor for the hit in the jazz club. For the final part of the film, he uses a Smith and Wesson 5906 in 9mm that he takes from a security guard he kills.

If the viewer observes carefully during the scene where Max is being robbed by the long haired derelict, a small and faint swastika is visible on his upper left cheek. Just below his eye. It is worth noting that Michael Mann has featured white supremacists in Heat, Collateral and Miami Vice.

While Annie is in Max's taxi cab the song "Hands of Time" by Groove Armada is heard on the radio. Annie asks Max to turn the volume up, to which Max responds "Like the classics?" The song "Hands of Time" appears on Groove Armada's 2002 album "Lovebox", released only two years before the movie.

Stuart Beattie, the screenwriter, wanted the studio to cast Robert De Niro as Max (once again making him a taxi driver, though the exact opposite of Travis Bickle). However the studio refused, insisting they wanted a younger actor in the role.

Mark Ruffalo states that the scene where Fanning first discovers Ramon Ayala's disappearance; and proceeds to call for "S.I.D", that Mann insisted on eighty or more takes. Ruffalo goes on to say that "you begin to lose your shit." Foxx and Barry Shabaka-Henley confirmed that Mann did in fact, film a massive amount of takes. Foxx stated: "Oh, yeah that hurts cuz Michael Mann *can* take some takes."

Stuart Beattie was waiting tables when he ran into a friend called Julie Richardson, who he'd met on a UCLA Screenwriting Extension course. Richardson had become a producer on the lookout for good thriller scripts in particular. Beattie pitched her his screenplay "The Last Domino" and she liked it. Her boss Frank Darabont also liked it and set up a meeting with HBO. They passed on the project after Beattie submitted another draft. He then begged his agent to set up a meeting at DreamWorks where an executive called Marc Haines read the script over a weekend. The studio bought the screenplay the following week.

James Newton Howard who scored this film recorded more than an hour of music for this film only to have it replaced with source music and additional music by Antonio Pinto. This is a trademark of Michael Mann's films of this type.

Russell Crowe came close to playing the role of Vincent, but couldn't commit to the picture because he was busy preparing for "Eucalyptus", the doomed Australian film project co-starring Nicole Kidman.

Starting with the car crash sequence up to the film's finale and end credits, James Newton Howard's score lasts roughly around 17 minutes and was intended this way according to director Michael Mann on his DVD commentary.

Contrary to Michael Mann's interview with American Cinematographer, Paul Cameron, whom he worked for the first three weeks of photography claimed that the digital cameras used lacked the ergonomics, color bandwidth and the standard camera lens support. These interviews and claims were brought to the attention of Panavision USA who subsequently developed the Genesis camera system based on that feedback and its usage was pioneered in Superman Returns (2006).

'Fernando Meirelles' revealed on BBC Radio 4 programme Front Row that he turned down the chance to direct Collateral because it would mean relocating from his home in Sao Paulo, Brazil to Los Angeles, California for 8 months.

It's not often mentioned that Vincent is working for Felix, who is played in the movie by Xavier Bardem. It is Jamie Foxx as Max who speaks in person with him because Vincent has never been seen by Felix. Both Tom Cruise and Xavier Bardem dated Penelope Cruise, who Xavier married and has two children with. Tom and Xavier have remained good friends for many years.

Though Max's character's last name is only seen in print on his cab license, it can be deduced when Vincent meets his mother in the hospital and without being introduced to her by Max, he takes her hand and says, "It's an honor to meet you, Mrs. Durocher".

The song that plays in the Club Fever scene is called "Ready Steady Go" by Paul Oakenfold. This is the same song that was used during the car chase in The Bourne Identity (2002). (As a side note, the film's sequel, The Bourne Supremacy was also released in 2004, same year as this film.

If you look closely you can see how Vincent, a trained killer, was unable to shoot Max, a normal cab driver. Max was firing wildly, but Vincent was using his signature precision shooting of two hits to the chest and one in the head. These shots hit the metal barrier in the middle of the door, and hence missed Max. You can see the bullet indentations in a few of the scenes. Max just got lucky with his random firing.

The guns that Vincent carries are a Heckler and Koch (HK) USP .45ACP and a Ruger Mk II .22 with integrated suppressor. Vincent didn't use a silenced USP Tactical or Mk.23 SOCOM as was previously suggested. The silenced pistol was a .22 Long Rifle caliber Ruger Mk II with the upper receiver and barrel replaced with a custom integral silencer. After killing the security guard at the DOJ building, Vincent uses a 9mm S&W 5906.

Max (Jamie Foxx) has to protect Annie (Jada Pinkett Smith) from being killed by Vincent (Tom Cruise) as she is his final target. Jaime Foxx would later appear in the 2014 incarnation of Annie starring Quvenzhanè Wallis which was also produced by Jada Pinkett Smith.